Do you believe in superstitions?
I guess every country has its own superstitions.

For example, in the U.S. I hear it’s bad luck to open an umbrella in the house, to see a black cat crossing in front of you, etc. Of course, if you ask me ANY color cat crossing in front of you is bad luck

Like it or not, many people believe them to a certain level even if none of them are based on scientific facts.

Let’s see the word 迷信 ( = meishin), superstition, first.

迷信 ( = meishin) superstition

迷(mei/mayou)to get lost, confusion

●迷う ( = mayou) to get lost, to get confused, to wander

信 (shin/nobu)to believe, trust

●信じる ( = shinjiru) to believe

●信用 ( = shinyou) to trust

Ex.しゃっくりが１００回出ると死ぬなんてただの迷信だ。

( = Shakkuri ga hyakkai deru to shinunante tada no meishin da)

The belief that you will die if you hiccup 100 times in a row is just a superstition.

The original meaning of縁起 ( = engi) came from Buddhism and means that not everything in the world has a specific physical or tangible form. Things are composed by various intangible “reasons” and “conditions”.

● 縁起がいい ( = engi ga ii) auspicious, to be a good omen, lucky

When you find some lucky sign in the morning you say

Ex. 今日は朝から縁起がいい。

= Kyou wa asa kara engi ga ii

= “I got a good sign from the morning (so today is going to be a good day)!”

= I have to take an exam today, but I dropped a plate and broke it. That’s a bad sign.

Note :落ちる ( = ochiru) and すべる ( = suberu) are taboo words for 受験生 ( = jukensei), students who have been studying to take their entrance examinations. Because the word 落ちる ( = ochiru) means to drop and すべる ( = suberu) means to slip, they can be taken to imply failing the exam. We actually avoid using these words in front of the “sensitive” students who are about to take an important exam.

Since it is considered to attract luck and fortune, you’ll often find 招き猫( = Maneki neko) at the entrance of the office, stores or restaurants to beckon more customers and, with them, more money.

Ex.2 ) だるま ( = daruma)

It is considered to bring good luck, victory or success. When you buy a daruma it usually has 2 blank eyes. (Some of the daruma dolls come with one eye filled in.) When you make a wish, for example to pass a test, win an election, etc., you fill out one of the eyes — giving it a pupil. When your wish comes true, you fill out the other eye.

Also there is a saying 七転び八起き ( = nanakorobi yaoki), Falling down seven times but getting up eight times, “Perseverance is better than defeat”, you can overcome all the difficulties and make it through. (The word on Daruma in the picture is 必勝 ( = hisshou) means “You’ll surely win”, “Victory” )

•縁起をかつぐ(or 担ぐ） ( = engi wo katsugu) to be superstitious

•験を担ぐ ( = gen wo katsugu) to be superstitious

Ex. 弟は入学試験の前に縁起をかついでとんかつを食べていた。

= Otouto wa shiken no mae ni engi wo katsuide tonkatsu wo tabete ita.

= My brother was eating pork cutlets before the entrance examination for good luck.

とんかつ ( = tonkatsu) is a pork cutlet. Katsu sounds as 勝つ ( = katsu) which means “to win”. So it relates to an idea of passing the exam.

= You will see lots of good luck products regarding success in an examination in the store during the examination period.

Note: There are lots of 験を担いだ商品 ( = Gen wo katsuida shouhin) lucky products for passing the entrance examination in Japan.
Some products just change their names to target students who are about to take exams.

•うかっ茶う ( =Ukacchau) Japanese tea ←from 受かっちゃう ( = ukacchau) to be able to pass the exam

(We often use a pun to create a catchy name.)

•ダルマサイダー ( = daruma saidaa) Daruma soda pop

•キットカット ( = Kittto katto) Kitkat is also popular among students because it sounds like きっと勝つ ( = Kitto katsu) to win for sure

Lucky number and unlucky numbers in Japan:

In Western countries, 13 is a bad luck number. But in Japan, number 四 ( = yon/shi) 4 is considered to be unlucky because one of the pronunciations is シ=shi is the same as the way we pronounce 死（ = shi) , death. Some apartment buildings, hotels or hospitals avoid using the number 4 for the floor number or room number.
The combination of the numbers 四 & 二 (four and two) is even worse because 四=死= death +二 ( = ni ) →it sounds like ” にん ( = nin) ” = 人 →死人 ( = shinin) dead person. (Ooooh! Spooky!)

The number 9 is likewise not very popular because we pronounce it “ku”, and it is the same pronunciation of 苦 ( = ku) pain.

So what numbers are considered to be a good luck in Japan? Traditionally 8 is a good-luck number because of its kanji, 八. The bottom part of the kanji spreads out, right? We call it 末広がり ( = sue hirogari), 末 ( = sue) the end, 広がり ( = hirogaru) to spread out, meaning things are getting better.

Odd numbers like 七五三 ( = shichi go san), 7,5,3, are also considered to be lucky numbers. That is why we celebrate 七五三 ( = shichi go san).

(→When children turn three, five and seven years old, their parents dress them up in kimono, hakama or nice dresses and take them to the shrine on November 15th.)

What dates are good for 冠婚葬祭 ( = kankon sousai) ceremonial occasions?

(Note : 冠婚葬祭 ( = kankon sousai) is all the ceremonial events in life.

冠 ( = kan) ( = kannmuri=crown) the coming of age

婚 ( = kon) refers marriage

葬 ( = sou) means funeral

祭 ( = sai) means ceremonies for ancestors

We set dates for important ceremonies based on 六曜 ( = rokuyou).
As you can probably guess from the first kanji, there are six different categories of luck for a day.

These “luck levels” are indicated on many Japanese calendars.

六曜 ( = rokuyou)

•先勝 ( = senshou,senkachi,sakigachi,sakikachi) Make a quick decision and carry things out quickly. Try to do important things in the morning. Doing things from 2pm to 6pm will bring you bad luck.

•友引 ( = tomobiki) Bad luck around the noon. Good luck in the morning and evening. Bad luck in the day time. If you play a game, it will be a tie. We are supposed to avoid having a funeral on that day because it will pull or draw引く ( = hiku) your friends 友 ( = tomo) to death

•先負 ( = senbu,senpu,senmake, sakimake) Bad luck in the morning and good luck from the afternoon.

•仏滅 ( = butsumetsu) Bad luck all day long. Avoid having weddings or starting something new on these day.

Note :When you are winning, you don’t want to stop the winning and to keep your つき ( = tsuki) luckor つきを落とさない ( = Tsuki wo otosanai.) not to lose your luck, some people keep wearing the same thing without washing , not to shave or try to do the same thing as the day they won.

Now we’ll see what kind of objects or events will bring you good luck and bad luck.

刃物 ( = hamono) is the thing to “cut” = 切る ( = kiru) and we don’t want to cut the connection of two people.

縁が切れる ( = en ga kireru) to cut the relationship

*鏡 ( = kagami) a mirror Giving a mirror is bad luck because it is breakable and implies that the relationship will break.

お見舞いに持っていってははいけないもの

= Omimai ni motte itte wa ikenai mono.

= The things that you shouldn’t take when you visit someone in a hospital.

Plants with roots: If you visit someone in the hospital, you shouldn’t take a plant in a flower pot because it has 根 ( = ne)rootsand will 根づく ( = nezuku) take root and that means the plant will last a long time. Which means the sick person will stay in the hospital an even longer time.
Also avoid taking シクラメン ( = shikuramen) cyclamen because it has a sound of シ(=shi) sounds like 死 ( = shi) death and 苦 ( = ku) pain and 椿 ( = tsubaki) camellia because the way it drops its flower is like the way people’s heads drop when they have been beheaded so it is 不吉 ( = fukitsu) ominous.

Other Taboos!

Some of the actions or behaviors are taboos because they are related to the funeral.

*箸をご飯にささない

= hashi wo gohan ni sasanai

= Do not stick chopsticks into a bowl of rice vertically

because that is the way we offer rice to the deceased at funerals.

*食べ物を箸と箸で渡さない。

= Tabemono wo hashi to hashi de watasanai.

= Do not to pass your food with your chopsticks to someone’s chopsticks directly.

This is taboo because this is the way we take pieces of bone from the ashes of a cremated body and place them into an urn. Two people will pick up a bone with different sets of chopsticks and move it together.

Note : When two people accidentally pick the same piece of food with chopsticks at the same time, one of them puts the food back down immediately saying

「(お）箸と（お）箸だから…。」

= (o)hashi to (o)hashi dakara…

= “(We shouldn’t do so because) it is from chopsticks to other chopsticks..”

*北枕 ( = kitamakura) To sleep facing north

北 ( = kita) means North and 枕 ( = makura) means a pillow.

As I mentioned in my 節分 ( = setsubun) lesson, it is not a taboo but we tend to avoid sleeping facing north because of our Buddhist tradition of putting deceased people’s bodies facing north.

*出針 ( = debari) mending your clothes before you leave→bad luck

→出 ( = de)

Ex. 出かける ( = dekakeru) to leave a house+ 針 ( = hari) needle

Ex. 朝出る時に出針を使わない

= Asa deru toki ni debari wo tsukawanai

= It is bad luck to mend your clothes before you leave the house in the morning.

*下駄の鼻緒が切れる

= Geta no hanao ga kireru.

= Geta (Japanese traditional sandal)thong breaks →bad luck

OK, now I will give you common examples of Japanese superstitions.
Guess what is going to happen or what you are supposed to do when/if…

6) 食べてすぐに寝ると ( = Tabete sugu ni neru to.) If you sleep right after you eat,

→牛になる ( = Ushi ni naru.) you will become a cow.

7) 猫が顔を洗うと ( = Neko ga kao wo arauto.) When a cat washes its face,

→雨がふる ( = Ame ga furu.) it’s going to rain.

8) 蛙が鳴くと雨 ( = Kaeru ga naku to ame.) When frogs croak,

→雨がふる ( = Ame ga furu.) it’s going to rain

9)くしゃみ ( = Kushami ikkai.) If you sneeze,

→誰かが噂をしている（ = dareka ga uwasa wo shiteiru) It means someone is talking about you.
When you keep sneezing, every number of sneeze has a different meaning. Such as badmouthing, good rumor, or someone falls in love with you, etc. It varies depending on the area and people.

10) 朝の蜘蛛は縁起がいいが夜の蜘蛛は殺すべし

=Asa no kumo wa engi ga ii ga yoru no kumo wa korosu beshi

= The spiders you see in the morning bring you good luck and the spiders you see at night are for bad luck. (Or If you see the night spiders, kill them.)

11) 食べ合わせ ( = tabeawase) Rules for what foods can be eaten together.

Ex.うなぎと梅干しを一緒に食べると

= Unagi to umeboshi wo issho ni taberu to

= If you eat grilled eel and pickled Japanese plum

→ お腹をこわす ( = Onaka wo kowasu.) You will have loose bowels.

Note : There are some other typical examples for the bad combination of food.

天ぷらと氷水 ( = tenpura to koorimizu) Tempura and iced water,

西瓜と鰻 ( = Suika to unagi.) water melon and grilled eel, etc.

12) 秋茄子は嫁に食わすな

= Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna.

= Don’t let your daughter-in-law eat an autumn eggplant.

→It has two interpretations for this saying:

1) Eggplants in autumn are very tasty and mother-in-laws didn’t want to share them with their daughter-in-laws.

2) Eggplants in autumn make women’s body’s colder so they are concerned that their daughter-in-law won’t have a baby.

13) ３人で写真を一緒に取ると

= Sannin de shashin wo issho ni toruto

= If you take three people in the same picture,

→真ん中の人が一番早く死ぬ

= mannaka bno hito ga ichiban hayaku shinu.

= The middle one in the picture dies first.

14) 風邪はうつすと ( = Kaze wa utsusu to) If you give your cold to others,

→早く治る ( = hayaku naoru) you will recover soon.

15) 丙午の嫁は ( = Hinoeuma no yome wa) Daughter-in-laws who are born in Hinoeuma year.

(Hinoeuma is from干支(=eto) which I mentioned in my 節分(=setsubun) lesson.)

→亭主を食い殺す

= Teishu wo kuikorosu

= They will eat and kill their husband. The women who are born in the year are considered to be very aggressive.Older people used say that but I don’t hear this anymore… Just for your information.

16) 雛人形をしまうのが遅れると

= Hina ningou wo shimau no ga okureruto

= (March 3rd is Girls’ day in Japan and the family who has little daughters display hina dolls in the house and celebrate the day.)

If you don’t put away the hina dolls right after March 3rd

→嫁にいけない ( = yome ni ikenai) or 婚期が遅れる ( = konki ga okureru) (Your daughters) won’t be able to get married or will miss their chance to marry while they are of marriageable age.

Please note that every regions might have different versions of these superstitions. Some of them in the list are very old fashioned but we have heard from our parents or grandparents when we were little.

35 Comments

Just came across your site and thought you might know of a superstition where children who loose their milk teeth throw the teeth over the house. I can’t remember if this is because it makes the new teeth grow strong. Do you know this superstition? I want to confirm it before I put it on the site. I’ve put a few on the site already but could only think of one that was good luck. Do you have any suggestions on any other ones I could add?

Hi Laoise! Welcome to our site!
Yes, when a child loses a baby tooth we throw them.
Throw an upper baby tooth over the roof and throw lower milk teeth towards under the floor hoping the permanent teeth grow in the right direction.

I am writing to you to ask you about whether this is believed to be a superstition in Japan..
Several years ago I went to Nara and unfortunately I accidentally stepped on a praying mantis!. I was wondering if there was a superstition related to this and would be grateful if you could let me know as I’m quite superstitious!. -_-; Thank you.

Sensei, I know “tte” can be used in various contexts. I know it can be used as a substitute for “wa” and “to”. In this specific sentence, what is the usage it has? I feel it is used as a quotation mark and kind of imperative as in “say what is a good thing of good omen”, but of course I can’t be sure.

@NecroMadMat
Hello again,
1) ~すべし is literal and usually used at the end of the sentences of aphoristic imperative.
すべき is much more common to use.

2) Ah, OK, again we add っ before て in casual speech.
There are various ways to say that sentence but
＊どんなことが縁起がよく、そしてどんなことが縁起が悪いですか？
＊どんなことが縁起がよく、どんなことが縁起が悪いですか？
＊どんなことが縁起がよくてどんなことが縁起が悪いですか？
↓
＊どんなことが縁起がよくってどんなことが縁起が悪いですか？ (the most colloquial)

Oh I understand sensei. Those three examples sensei provided really helped me as I am used to seeing sentences constructed in that manner, they really helped me.

Sensei, “tte” is a very dynamic particle and it’s dynamism has me clueless at times. lol Right now it stands as one of my deadly adversaries towards Japanese learning, hopefully I’ll make it my ally some day. XD

Good to hear it’s clear now.
Actually small っ is very tricky. It is just one small letter but it is difficult even for many people who have lived in Japan for a long time.
I have a lesson of って when you quote but since I know you have been following the index order, just take a quick peek, OK?

That’s my situation sensei. “tte” is very complicated for me. Sensei I do am following the index but I am ahead of this lesson by now, I mean, I already studied this lesson a while back.

The thing is that I write down my doubts in a document and then when some days pass after the last time I asked sensei some questions, I ask once again, as not to overwhelm sensei with all the questions I have piling up in a document. XD

I already read the “tte” lesson as a matter of fact sensei, but even then I am still struggling to differentiate the meaning behind “tte” depending on sentence, and that is why I am treating each sentence case by case. Sorry sensei if I ask again for the meaning of “tte” in the future. “tte” just doesn’t seem to be my friend sometimes.

17. It’s not easy to infer why. If you write it in roman numerals, it would be XVII, which is an anagram of VIXI, which means “I have lived” (therefore, I’m dead). I’ve read that buildings in Italy don’t have a 17th floor, hotels don’t have a room No. 17 and Alitalia planes don’t feature a 17th row, as you can see here: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Alitalia-17.jpg

By the way, I talked about the 立て箸 in my speech (Speech Contest 2011 in Chiyoda, Tokyo, before I left Japan).

Ah so 亀 are good luck?!! ^_~ <3
Yeah, we got some superstitions in the US like 13=unlucky, breaking a mirror, "knock on the wood" (to chase evil spirits away), 7=lucky number (I think it comes from the Bible…), 666=Satan, and one that's REALLY REALLY big is the groom shouldn;t see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding ceremony (which is different from Japanでしょう？）

I know that in China 8 is a lucky number too cause they made a big deal with the Olympics and they had to take place on 08/08 of 2008 ^^ and in Korea lucky number is 7 (I guess they got it from the West ^ ^ at least that's what they've told me)

In some places in the Middle East 4 is unlucky number too! Did you know? Also, in most of Eastern Europe even numbers are unlucky because when you go to funerals you buy an even numbers of flowers (2,4,6…) so you don't buy an even number of anything (especially flowers) to people for special occassions, unless if it's a funeral!^^ It's funny cause here (in the US) we like even numbers! We usually go buy dozens so a guy will buy his girl a dozen roses and if you did that to a girl from over there she'd freak out www Also, I think Americans got a special place for number 2 in their hearts (2=couple=love)

Also, the mirror thing probably comes from Eastern Europe cause there most people believe mirrors are a passage to the other world (so even today they cover the mirrors in the house of the person who died so that their soul can move on)

oh, and in some places in Middle East people believe that sleeping with your had towards south or west is bad luck (cause that's the position they put dead people in ) so they try to sleep with their heads towards north, or even better-east! (west=sun goes down=bad; east=sun rises=life=good most churched in middle eastern Europe were built so that when you enter them you are moving towards east (=the beginning of life)

Also, in some parts of Middle East red thread means separation/divorce so if you want someone to break up with someone (and trust me, there are people who do this) you put a short piece of red thread under their bed/pillow, in their pocket, or something and let them carry it around. (mean, right?)

one more superstition I can think of, and I think this one is pretty common in Europe (cause my friends from different countries like Russia and the Netherlands both practised it) is to put a knife under your pillow at night to chase away nightmares/bad dreams ^^ (it works ! I've tried it ^~^)

yup, as you can tell I like learning about these things and I m probably more superstitious than an average person here^^ and my mom is Arabic and I've lived in Europe before so I got to learn a bit about some other cultures there ;)

oops~! “most churched in middle eastern Europe were built so that when you enter them you are moving towards east ” I meant to say MEDIEVAL Europe^^; sorry for so many typos, it’s 2:55 AM here …. zzzzz

Wow! I will call you Miss Superstition from now. I had no idea you know this much! I am very impressed. Thank you so much for telling me all about interesting superstitions. I will check under my pillow before I sleep from now on.
But I would feel a bit uncomfortable sleeping on a knife, though…
Yes, 亀 will bring good luck. Also in Hawaii, Honu=ウミガメ brings you happiness, I heard..

こちらにもコメント有り難うございます。日本人でも六曜って言葉を知っている人はあまり多くはありません。六曜の中でも大安や仏滅は知っていても赤口や先負、先勝は知らない人が一杯います。でも手帳やカレンダーにはまだよく書かれていますね。お葬式の儀式は仏教から来ているので中国の影響も多いかもしれません。
もちろん、質問あればいつでもどうぞ！
(Note : そう、覚えたばかり、->You mean you have just remembered that you had an old planner ( with rokuyou)? If so,今、思い出しましたが、家に六曜の書いてある古い手帳がありました。
いまもう少し分かれます。->今は、もう少しわかります。または、わかる様になりました。
帰宅するにー＞帰宅したら
読むつもり。->読んでみます。（調べてみます。）
日本での数か->「数字の意味」のことかな？
よければ、質問があったら又先生に尋ねてもいいんですか？->「よければ」と「あったら」は二つ条件になるので「また質問があったら(わからないことがあったら)また先生に聞いてもいいですか？」で大丈夫！！
ここのブログにコメントを日本語で書いてくれる人は皆、レベル高いですね〜！すごい！すごい！！